Shoppers

During the last week, I've finally had the chance to get to know my across-the-hall neighbor, Johan. Since he manages a restaurant, we tend to keep pretty different hours, but this week, we caught up several times, and made plans to go shopping together at the Waterfront today.

I ran into him last night in the kitchen, and asked if we were still on for this morning. After he left the kitchen, Gogo said, "Ah girl, I saw him when you asked him about the shopping. I could see it in his eyes. This one also is a shopper."

And so both Johan and I enjoy a good day of shopping and kitsch, so we headed down to the waterfront this morning to the giant mall and crowd of stores and open markets that congregate near the harbor. We even caught a brilliant show put on by African dancers from Khayelitsha, and I'll post photos and video of that a little bit later. For today, here are some shots of my shopping spree with Johan. Tomorrow morning, I fly to Joburg and head off on my small safari.

We start our shopping journey at the gem shop near the entrance to the mall.

Mandela kitsch. There is a shocking amount of this kind of thing to be had around Cape Town.



Johan used to be a model in London. He is much better than I am at vamping it up.

We got kicked out of the store for photographing these two dresses. (There was a sign saying not to do that, but we were having too much fun to read it.)

We stopped for lunch at Spur, which is a steak restaurant on the order of T.G.I.Fridays. There are Spurs everywhere. There is even a Spur in Plumstead next door to Checkers.

They have a whole store just for Crocs. And in South Africa, Crocs cost $50. Crocs with fur in them cost $80.

A chocolate cake from Pick N' Pay for our last night all together.

Johan and I, the cake, and our sweets for the train.